Mobile Bar Stock Rack for Round Pipe and Tube Storage

Round bar stock and tube have a behavior problem in storage: they roll. Stack them on the floor and the bottom layer becomes a bearing surface for the layers above. Store them in a fixed cantilever rack and the retrieval step often requires reaching over or around adjacent bundles. A mobile bar stock rack addresses the behavior problem by organizing the round material on arms, and the motorized version addresses the access problem by bringing the correct storage group to the aisle instead of asking the operator to go to the group.

Herochu’s motorized mobile cantilever systems are built around this combination—ground-mounted rails, independent tower movement, and electric assistance for the retrieval step. For warehouses storing round pipe and tube in diameters from hand-held conduit to heavy line pipe, the design reduces two costs that rarely appear on a rack quote: the labor cost of repositioning material to reach the target bundle, and the injury cost of manual handling at height or depth.

The Round-Stock Problem That Fixed Racking Does Not Solve

A cantilever arm holds long material from below, and the absence of a front column means a forklift can approach directly. That design works for pipe and tube because the arm presents a flat support surface across the load’s length. But a fixed cantilever layout still requires the operator to find the right bay within a long run, and if the target bundle is behind another bundle on the same level, the front bundle has to move first.

Roll-out arms solve the second problem by extending the storage level outward. The operator retrieves from the extended position, and the level retracts when the pick is complete. The mobile base solves the first problem by consolidating the tower groups. Instead of walking a fixed aisle to the correct bay, the operator calls the tower group, and the group travels to the open aisle position.

The combination is particularly relevant for bar stock because round material is often stored in multiple diameters and lengths that share similar arm configurations. A mobile bar stock rack can keep separate tower groups for different diameter families and open only the aisle for the group being picked. The alternative—a single fixed aisle serving every tower—consumes floor area for the entire inventory range, even when only one diameter is being retrieved.

Electric Assistance and the Manual-Handling Threshold

The weight of round bar stock escalates quickly with diameter. A bundle of 2-inch solid bar is a different handling problem from a bundle of 2-inch tube, and a loaded arm at the 3-ton or 5-ton level is beyond manual positioning. Electric assistance is not a convenience feature at those loads; it is the mechanism that makes the roll-out design usable.

Herochu’s HC-G series uses a motorized drive for independent shelf and cantilever movement, with a control method based on Siemens PLC and a material discharge method described as electric assistance. The carriage speed is 27 mm/s, and the racking traveling speed is 1–5 m/min—slow enough to keep a loaded round-stock bundle stable during repositioning, fast enough to open an aisle in a working timeframe.

The electric drive also changes the labor profile. Manual hand-crank cantilever systems require an operator at the crank for every extension. In a warehouse extracting multiple bundles per hour across several levels, the crank becomes the bottleneck that the crane or forklift waits on. Herochu’s electric series is built with a dedicated motor per level and single-button control, so each tier extends independently without an operator stationed at a handle. The operator controls the movement from the forklift or from a push-button panel, which matters when the load is round and the consequence of a sudden movement is a rolling bundle.

Safety Design for Round Pipe and Tube

Round stock introduces a roll hazard that flat or rectangular loads do not present. Three design details matter on a mobile bar stock rack.

First, arm inclination. Straight arms suit rigid loads; inclined arms, typically 5 to 10 degrees, keep round stock from rolling off the storage level. For pipe and tube, the incline is a passive safety feature that works even when the operator is not thinking about roll risk.

Second, arm end stops. Bolt-on end stops or lips prevent forward roll-off during loading and unloading. They are a small cost relative to the arm and are nearly always worth specifying for pipe, tube, and conduit. On a mobile system, the stop also prevents material from creeping forward when the tower decelerates.

Third, load placement. Heavier pipe and tube should sit on lower arm levels, with lighter material above. This keeps the system’s center of gravity low and reduces strain on the upper structure. A mobile base does not change the physics of the tower; it moves the tower, and the tower still has to be loaded with its stability in mind.

Herochu’s roll-out cantilever system is described as enhancing safety by eliminating the need to climb over or rummage through precarious piles of metal stock, with workers retrieving materials at waist level rather than from unstable stacks. For round bar stock, that waist-level retrieval is the difference between a controlled lift and a bundle that shifts mid-handling.

Throughput and the Cost of Searching

The operational case for a mobile bar stock rack is not only about space. It is also about the time spent finding the right bundle. In a static layout with deep storage levels, retrieving a bundle from the back of a level can require unloading the front bundles first. Roll-out arms remove that step by presenting the level to the operator.

Reported loading and unloading time reductions in roll-out cantilever systems reach up to 30% compared with static retrieval from deep stacks. In a bar stock warehouse where order fulfillment is measured in bundles per shift, a 30% reduction in retrieval time is a capacity increase that does not require a new building or a second shift.

The mobile base adds a second time saving: the operator does not walk a long fixed aisle to find the correct bay. The tower group travels to the aisle, and the aisle opens at the point of use. For a warehouse with a high variety of round pipe and tube SKUs, that reduction in travel and search time compounds across every pick.

Frequently Asked Questions

What keeps round pipe from rolling off a mobile bar stock rack?
Inclined arms, typically 5 to 10 degrees, are the primary passive measure for round stock. Arm end stops or lips provide a secondary barrier against forward roll-off during loading and unloading. Heavier material should be stored on lower levels to keep the center of gravity low.

Is electric movement necessary for a bar stock rack, or can manual roll-out work?
Manual roll-out is viable for lighter loads and lower retrieval frequencies. At the 3-ton to 5-ton per-level range, electric assistance removes the physical exertion and the bottleneck of a hand-crank operation. Herochu’s HC-G series uses a dedicated motor per level with single-button control, so each tier extends independently without an operator at a crank.

How fast does a motorized mobile cantilever tower move?
Herochu specifies a carriage speed of 27 mm/s and a racking traveling speed of 1–5 m/min. The carriage speed governs fine positioning; the travel speed governs movement along the rail. Both are deliberately conservative to keep loaded round-stock bundles stable during repositioning.

Can a mobile bar stock rack store different pipe diameters on the same tower?
Yes, provided the arms are adjustable along the column and the load per level stays within the tower’s rating. Adjustable arm spacing allows multiple diameters and lengths to be stored on the same system, which matters when inventory changes from job to job. Separation between diameter groups on the same level is good practice to prevent mixing and to keep retrieval predictable.